Especially Now
by vmars15
Summary: Quinn and Lauren are competing for Prom Queen, but when Lauren goes too far who will Puck side with?


"I'm running for Prom Queen." Lauren Zizes announced proudly after Quinn Fabray, who was previously the only campaigning candidate for the crown, had prompted her.

Quinn's eyes widened. She was in shock. Lauren Zizes was not the typical Prom Queen. "As a joke – right?"

Lauren raised her eyebrows at the blonde teen. "No, I'm seriously running. See I don't know if you're aware Quinn but I've recently acquired myself a hot piece of man candy for my boyfriend and after really expressing myself through Glee Club I think this is the perfect opportunity to harness all of that positive mojo and compete for the crown."

This had to be a joke. Lauren was obviously messing with her. She had probably been set up to do this by Santana or some other meddling student. If that was the case, Quinn could not show any fear. Now that she was threatened by Lauren – but if she was running she was sure to get the outcast vote ad Quinn did not want to risk losing any votes. "It doesn't matter," Quinn retorted, "You're not any real competition."

Lauren was visibly hurt by the comment. "What do you mean by that?"

Quinn bit her lip. She didn't think Lauren was this good of an actress. Sure, she had been truthful; Lauren did not look like the typical Prom Queen, but Quinn didn't want to actually hurt the girl's feelings. She needed to retrace her steps. "I meant that you don't have a running mate. Finn and I are running together. We're shoe-ins. You're running alone. Statistically that gives you very low odds of winning."

"Well then I'll just have to run alongside Puckerman."

Quinn was getting annoyed. Lauren should have ripped down the posters and announced her resignation for the run of the most prestigious title a girl could win in high school at least four dirty looks ago. "No one is going to vote for Puck!"

Lauren was now angry. She wasn't about to let Quinn speak badly about her man. The Zizes were known to be territorial. "Why not?"

"It's science," Quinn replied warmly, hoping that a pleasant attitude would be able to convince Lauren to give up this foolish dream, "Prom King and Queen are always the All American Couple. Finn and I exude that. Puck and you exude more of a _She's All That_ vibe, and while that looks cute in movies it doesn't work in the real world."

Lauren took a step closer towards Quinn. "Okay I am done with your bad attitude Fabray. I'm running for Prom Queen and that's that. Prepare to go down in a burning fire of flames."

Quinn rolled her eyes. "You're not messing with just anyone Zizes. I've been known as the Ice Queen and Head Bitch here for a while now. You run for Prom Queen and it's going to get messy."

Lauren smiled slyly. "It's on."

"Why do I have to do this again?" Puck asked. He was sitting in Lauren's bedroom – getting no action as per usual and painting a banner.

Lauren rolled her eyes at her boyfriend as she worked on her computer creating new posters to put out for the next day. "Because we are running for Prom King and Queen. We need publicity. It's the only way to remain on people's minds long enough to have them vote for us."

Puck shook his head. He suspected Lauren had mentioned this 'Prom King' deal before but this was the first time he was listening to her and he was not having any of it. "No way! I am not running for Prom King. Do you have any idea how much of a badass I won't look like if I run? Or what if I win? No! This is not happening."

Lauren stood up and stared down Puck. She knew she intimidated him and she was using it to her full advantage. "Yes you are. You are going to run, we are going to win, and once we do then we will go to motel I trust you are reserving a room at and we will celebrate further."

Puck smirked. He had trouble getting to first base it seemed recently and any chance at possible sexual encounters was enough to make him agree to something he normally would refuse to his deathbed.

"Fine," He sighed, "But how do you think we're going to win? Finn and Quinn are running and they've been destined to be King and Queen since they came to McKinley."

"Fabray and I have decided to enter into a war of sorts. We will stop at nothing to tear the other one to pieces. I'm currently working the hair issues. She clearly dyes it and I am prepared to have my followers be exposed to the fraud that their would be Queen is."

Puck nodded. He didn't think dying her hair blonde would lose Quinn any votes but he was trying to be a good boyfriend so he didn't argue. Plus, if that was the best Lauren could do then he was glad. They would almost certainly lose to Quinn and Finn and Lauren still possibly would let him get a couple bases further in the motel room.

Quinn stopped a group of girls in the middle of the hall between classes. They were wearing the most hideous clothes and glasses ever that made them look like grandmothers. She noticed that sense of style anywhere. These girls were actually emulating Lauren Zizes. "Why are you dressing like Lauren?" Quinn asked loudly, puzzled why anyone would voluntarily do that to himself or herself.

The girls smiled. "She's an inspiration." They answered in unison.

Quinn screeched and walked briskly down the halls to find Finn. She was not about to let herself lose the thing she had wanted her whole life to Lauren Zizes. Prom Queen meant the world to Quinn and she would stop at nothing to get it.

Quinn found Finn by his locker and pulled him to towards her to get his attention. "Hey," He said, "What's going on? You look upset."

Quinn frowned. "I am. I just saw talked to three girls dressed like Lauren saying that she was an inspiration and I spotted two more on my way over here dressed the same way. This is serious Finn. She might be bigger competition than I thought."

Finn shrugged his shoulders. "I doubt it. People know how badly you want this. They'll give it to you. Us. They'll give it to us."

Quinn noticed that Finn was holding a poster in his hands. She nodded her head towards it. "What's that?"

Finn shook his head and tried to shove it into his locker as he mumble, "Nothing. Just something I found on my locker." Quinn however caught his hand and pulled it towards her so she could retrieve it from him. She unfolded it and saw a picture of herself beside a box of hair dye. Underneath _Why Give a Real Crown to a Fake Girl_ was written. Quinn was livid. She crumpled the poster up and threw it on the ground.

"What's happening Finn? Last week I was the favourite to win in the polls by a landslide. We didn't even need to vote. Now girls are looking up to Lauren and she's started a smear campaign. We're in big trouble."

"Hey Finn," Mike announced as he walked up to the couple, "This poster was on my locker. Thought you should see it."

Mike handed the poster over to Finn but Quinn grabbed it. She expected to see the same hair one that she had just ruined but instead it was a different one. This time it was a terribly unflattering picture of Finn during glee rehearsal. The wording this time was: _Why give the most important dance to someone with two left feet?_

Quinn ripped it into tiny little pieces. "We need serious damage control Finn. Today at lunch we're going to have to hand out the emergency cupcakes."

Finn was upset and his lip quivered. "But you said if we didn't hand them out that I could eat them!"

Quinn rolled her eyes. "But now there's an emergency Finn! It needs to be done. Meet me here at lunch and we'll go to the Home Ec. room to get them."

Finn reluctantly agreed and Quinn made her way to class, much more worried about her standing in the race for the crown. Everything had been going so well but now Quinn had to try much harder. There was no option in losing. Quinn's mom, sister, and all of her older cousins and aunts had won prom queen at their school. She couldn't be the one person that didn't.

Lauren saw them at lunch. Little Miss Perfect and her Quarterback boyfriend handing out delicious, sugary treats to the students of McKinley. No sane person could resist such a sweet vanilla cupcake. Quinn Fabray had responded to the smear campaign and she was not playing dirty.

"We have to do something Puckerman." She noted to her boyfriend. He was picking though his pasta, hoping that one of the cupcakes would be coming his way. However, due to the fact that he was Finn's main competition for Prom King and his girlfriend was Quinn's rival for Queen he knew his prospects were bleak.

"I don't know how to bake."

Lauren looked at Puck like he was growing a third arm. "It's so much better when you're not talking," She told him, "I don't mean baked goods. We'd look like desperate copycats. That's probably why they didn't enter the dirty politics of pointing out others flaws and revealing elephants in the room. Once the rival candidate has made their move then the opponent has to make a new move. We can't bake cookies to solve this. We need to hold a press conference. Here, outside during lunch."

Puck raised his eyebrow. "A press conference? Isn't that only for important people? Like politicians or Charlie Sheen?"

Lauren shook her head. "Press conferences are for people who have something to say. And we have a lot to tell everyone. We'll alert them to all the reasons why we are the only viable voting option by raising ourselves sky high and tearing Finn and Quinn down lower than they've ever been."

Puck thought about it. Finn was finally starting to become his best friend again and he had so much history with Quinn that he felt he owed it to both of them to protect the two from Lauren's wrath. "You're going to leave it to things like Finn's dancing and Quinn's hair though – right?"

Lauren smiled and patted Puck's hand. "Of course. If I'm _too _mean then the public may revolt against us. Don't worry Puckerman; I know what I'm doing."

Finn stared at Quinn as they ate lunch together outside the next day. Thoughts had been running through his mind since the past twenty-four hours and he needed clarification. "What if we don't win?"

Quinn raised one eyebrow and dropped the fork that she had been eating her salad with. "Why wouldn't we win? Have you heard anything? I know some people are voting for Lauren and Puck but last time I checked we were still ahead in the polls."

"What polls?"

Quinn sighed. It was like Finn never listened to her. She had told him about the website at least three times. "Jacob Ben Israel's blog. What polls have you been looking at?"

Finn shook his head as he took another bite out of his burger. He tried to pass his comment off, as he could tell it was upsetting his girlfriend. "None. I just was wondering. I didn't know if you were planning to self destruct if we lose."

Quinn gave Finn her serious face. She was not in the mood for entertaining foolish ideas such as them losing the most important titles they could ever possibly win. "Losing isn't an option. We have to win. End of story Finn. You have to make sure that everyone you know is voting for us."

"I already know Sam isn't."

Quinn raised an eyebrow once more. She thought that Finn and Sam had a good rapport. His vote should have been easy enough to receive. "Why not?"

Finn laughed, figuring that Quinn was being sarcastic. When she didn't slip out of her angry face he realized that she seriously didn't understand. "You two only stopped going out because we kissed. Plus I overheard Lauren asking for his vote yesterday after Glee Club and he told her he would. Also I think he and Puck are kind of friends. I mean Puck did spray him in the eyes with body spray after he got out of juvie and found out you two were dating, but lately they've gotten along. They both play guitar. I'm a drummer."

Quinn was about to announce to Finn that no matter what instrument he played he had to set out to win Sam's vote, as they were not in a position to be risking anything but before she could a noise came on through a speakerphone. "Attention students of McKinley High," A familiar voice attached to a boy with a Jew fro announced, "Two of your candidates for Prom King and Queen are here today to hold a press conference. They will be convincing you why you should vote for them. Listen up and afterwards head to my blog so you can check the latest ranking in the polls."

Quinn wasn't sure what was going on but she saw Lauren standing in the middle of the outdoor corridors with a reluctant Puck standing behind her. She took the speakerphone, repositioned her glasses, and started her speech. "Ladies and Gents of McKinley: Vote Lauren Zizes and Noah Puckerman for your 2011 Prom Queen and King. This is a necessity. I personally represent the epitome of a prom queen: Confident, sassy, fabulous, and a winner. My boyfriend, Noah Puckerman, is going to look great in a suit. Therefore you should vote us for prom royalty. This is the only way to ensure that your prom is a success."

Quinn took Finn's arm and dragged him closer. She needed to be able to hear this speech. It was terrible. Lauren was simply stating buzzwords and hoping the people would listen to her. However, people seemed kind of into it. Their attention was on her, and she had heard a few cheers. Didn't anyone have eyes? Lauren was not prom queen material!

Lauren pushed Puck forward and handed him the speakerphone. He obviously was not the one behind the idea of a press conference. He muttered, "If you don't want me to unleash my nun chucks on you then make sure you vote for Zizes and Puckerman."

Quinn rolled her eyes. This was stupid. She looked at Finn for support but he was looking off into the distance, where Quinn noticed Rachel was sitting with Tina. That infuriated Quinn. It had taken her long enough to win Finn back from the girl and now he was giving her longing glances. Finn was supposed to be head over heels for Quinn and only Quinn! The blonde teenager tried to distract herself form that problem by focusing on her other problem: Lauren Zizes. She gave her a dirty look from her position and saw that Lauren noticed it. She rolled her eyes at her and tossed her hair back, as if this meant nothing to her.

Lauren smiled. She had a plan up her sleeve. Now she was going to focus on the other side of the speech: Bashing her opponents. "Not only should you vote for me and Puckerman but you should _not _vote for Finn Hudson and Quinn Fabray. First of all, Finn cannot dance to save his life, and Quinn is the fakest girl at this school. I have recently been brought to realize that not only does she dye her hair, but that she also uses fake eyelashes!"

Quinn gasped. She had only told one person that in her entire life and that was Brittany. She was going to get mad at the girl but knew that Lauren must have manipulated her into blabbing. Though this revelation was not what Quinn wanted to be expressed, she took it lightly. No one was going to switch votes because she wore false eyelashes. As long as Lauren stuck to these types of insults Finn and Quinn would be safe.

Lauren wasn't done however, she had much more ammunition. "Also I think we should all address the big pink elephant in the room. Why should we vote for a failed couple? Quinn and Finn once dated and it ended tragically. I personally do not want a couple like that to represent my high school life. I would much rather a couple that cares for each other such as Puckerman and myself. A girl who cheats on her boyfriend with his best friend, gets pregnant, and lies about the paternity to her boyfriend, is not the type of person that I want to be my Queen. Basically, I, Lauren Zizes, am an inspiration to the girls of McKinley, while Quinn Fabray is the school liar, manipulator, and slut. She is a cold person. She gave up her own daughter. On the other hand, I am a national wrestling champion. I am a winner and will continue to win. That is all. Have a good day."

Lauren walked off to head back inside the school while flairs of whispers started up. Kids everywhere were talking about the verbal smack down that had just gone down. Finn braced himself for a high-pitched squeal by Quinn. Quinn stood there with tears in her eyes. She had worked extremely hard to move past that incident and now Lauren had brought it up in front of everyone. That would be hugely damaging to her run for Queen. Also, it brought back so many dark memories for Quinn. She ran off crying to the girl's washroom. Puck stood still, not sure what had just occurred. Lauren had promised that she wasn't going to be too mean. What she had done was the most insensitive and lowest blow he had ever witnessed. He saw Quinn run inside the school. He figured she was going after Lauren to start a catfight. He rushed after her.

Puck couldn't find Quinn when he entered the school, but he saw Lauren by her locker, high fiving a group of girls as they patted her on the back. He walked over to her and shooed the girls away. Once they were gone, Puck asked hastily, "What was that all about?"

"That was the moment that won us the titles babe. We're shoe ins now. No doubt about it." Lauren was proud of herself. It was evident from her facial expression.

"You said you weren't going to be mean."

Lauren frowned. "I was telling the truth Puckerman. I don't want Quinn to be Prom Queen and that's why. I was sharing an opinion."

Puck shook his head. "No. No, you were stooping low to whatever you could to break Quinn. You shouldn't have done that. Last year wasn't her fault and you shouldn't bring it up."

Lauren furrowed her eyebrows. "It wasn't her fault that she cheated on Finn? It wasn't her fault that she lied to him? It wasn't her fault that she gave the baby up? Come on, don't make excuses for her."

Puck was getting mad. He usually preferred to avoid last year and the Beth situation but Lauren was being terrible. "Stop it," He told her in his most serious and threatening voice, "You mention the pregnancy or the cheating or the lying or any of it one more time and we're through. Quinn doesn't deserve this. You need to apologize to her. She could have said some really mean things about you through all of this and she didn't. You called her a slut in front of the whole school. I'm not cool with that."

Lauren huffed, but realized that this was a sore issue for Puck. She sighed and relented, promising to say sorry to Quinn the next time she saw her. Puck nodded and walked away, not wanting to be near his girlfriend at the moment. As he walked down the halls he heard sniffling inside of the girl's washroom. He recognized who it was and walked inside. Once he entered he saw Quinn sitting on the floor, wiping her tears with a tissue. He leaned against the wall and slid down to sit beside her. "Hey." He whispered.

Quinn turned away from Puck. She figured he had been a part of the speech and didn't want anything to do with him. "Leave me alone."

Puck cleared his throat. He usually wasn't a serious guy but he knew he had to be. "I told Lauren it wasn't right what she did. Se told me she was gong to bring up stuff like your hair and eyelashes. I didn't know she was going to be a bitch. I'm sorry."

Quinn turned her head around to see if Puck was being sincere. She looked into her eyes and knew that he was telling the truth. She tried to catch her breath so she could speak. "How can you be a slut when you've had sex once?"

"You can't be."

Quinn gave Puck a frown. "Then why does everyone think I am? Lauren, Santana, my dad, and even though he doesn't admit it…. I know Finn does too. And sometimes I forget about everything for a while and it's so good. I forget about being an outcast and people whispering about me. I only remember being hot and popular. With Sam it was like that. With Finn it's like that. And running for Prom Queen was letting me forget. But then something always brings me back. Sam broke up with me. Finn asked me about last year. Now Lauren's speech. I just want to be able to feel good about myself."

Puck looked Quinn in the eye and whispered, "Is that why you didn't want to be with me once school started? Because I reminded you of stuff?"

Quinn let out a sniffle and nodded. "You remind me of _everything_. That night, lying to Finn, him yelling when he found out, people whispering, your mom giving me dirty looks, my dad kicking me out of the house, _her_. It's hard to be around you."

Puck nodded his head, understanding what Quinn meant. "It's hard to be around you too. I didn't want to give Beth up. But you did. It's hard to look at you or talk to you. I thought maybe if we were dating that it'd make things better, but you didn't want to."

Quinn wiped the tears from her eyes. She positioned her body to face Puck's. She took his hand in hers and interlaced their fingers. She took a deep breath, knowing that telling him what she wanted to say was going to be difficult. "I don't want you to think that I hate you. I don't. And… well I loved you Puck. But it's too hard to be around you so I had to move on. I don't hate you. And I'm going to tell everyone for the rest of my life that you were a mistake… but you weren't. _She _wasn't a mistake either. I'm going to tell people she was. But just know that I have to do that. If I don't then it means that I lost everything and then I cry and feel terrible. I need to move on so I have to convince myself that last year was a mistake. Please don't argue with me. This is what I have to do."

Puck didn't know how to process everything. He wanted to tell Quinn that she was wrong and that they deserved another chance, but he knew that it would ruin the moment they were having and she would force him out of the washroom. So he simply asked, "But you loved me?"

Quinn nodded and made sure to look away from Puck as she answered, "Yes… especially now."

She got the nerve to glance at Puck and he was smiling at her. They laughed and Quinn looked down at their hands holding. "Don't tell anyone about this."

Puck nodded. "I promise… as long as I don't have to leave yet."

Quinn agreed. She knew this would be the last moments she was going to have with Puck, alone and honest. She wouldn't allow any of this to happen again. It was going to hurt so much when he left and she was reminded of everything she gave up. She wasn't going to make a habit of doing that. Puck let go of her hand and wrapped his arm around Quinn's shoulder. She nestled into him and they stayed like that until Quinn was done crying. It was silent, but it was all they needed.

Once it was time to leave Quinn insisted that she walk out of the washroom first and then Puck would leave three minutes later so that no one would suspect anything fishy. They stood up and looked at each other. Quinn raised herself on her toes so that she could kiss Puck on the cheek. Though she would be seeing him again, she knew this was really a goodbye. However, after she kissed him chastely, Puck pulled Quinn closer to him and gave her a passionate kiss. He had one hand on her back and the other underneath her hair and he let out all of his emotion into the one kiss. Quinn, though she did not initiate it and was surely going to deny the existence of the kiss, kissed back. Once they parted Quinn frowned and asked, "What was that all about?"

Puck shrugged his shoulders. "If you're going to deny that I'm a mistake for the rest of your life I needed to make sure it really was a lie."

Quinn sighed. "Don't try anything like that again."

Puck rolled his eyes. "Yeah, yeah," he said as he waved her comment off, "I'll vote for you for Prom Queen if it makes it up to you."

Quinn smirked and then made her way out of the washroom, glancing back one more time at Puck who was touching his lip with his thumb before she shut the door.

_Author's Notes: So I would love for this to happen or something similar. But I'm not getting my hopes up and therefore I wrote this story :) _

_Hope you all enjoyed!_

_Writers take great time and care to create stories. I would appreciate any reviews that you could give me :) a word, a sentence, a paragraph? I'll take anything!_

_Thanks so much for reading!_

_Until next time,_

_Happy Reading!_


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